Never Again
by LostinOblivion
Summary: Emily returns to LA after several years absence, with a husband and two daughters, but her marriage is painfully far from the fairytale. Adult situations.
1. Chapter 1

"Where are my kids? Has a doctor examined Marie yet? I want a doctor to look at her." Cheryl could hear Emily's tear-filled voice anxiously plead the detectives with her to tell her that her little girls were okay, as she made her way down the hospital hallway.

"Ms. Lehman, before we can get into any of that, we need to know what happened with your husband this evening." The cop patiently explained.

"I told you already, he's dead, I did it. I haven't denied that. Now please, where are my children?" She sounded exhausted, about ready to break down, and Cheryl swallowed, shock giving way to nausea. Her friend had changed so much after leaving LA, but she'd didn't see it, didn't allow herself to see how broken Emily had become. And, now she was admitting to murder.

"Gentleman, have you offered Agent Lehman an attorney?" She pushed her way through the door, standing tall, staring square at the cops.

"I don't need a lawyer, just somebody tell me what's happening with my girls," Emily pled, staring deep into Cheryl's eyes.

"They are upstairs with a social worker, and Matt. Why does Marie need to be examined?" To her knowledge, the only person who got hit was Emily.

"Eddie, he shook her. You know what happens to babies after their shaken, and I know she's older, I just need to know she's alright." Marie was two years-old, and Emily was right, that was still young enough for shaking to cause serious damage.

"Is that what started this, Emily, he hurt Marie?" Cheryl asked, made more upset at the idea of the man hurting his own children.

"I'll tell you all exactly what happened as soon as I know my girls are alright." Emily wasn't about to budge, her girls were two important to her.

"Okay, give me twenty minutes. Gentleman, can I see you in the hallway a moment?" She motioned the cops to follow her; Emily wasn't going anywhere, she was handcuffed to the hospital bed.

"Sorry, SAC Carrera, and Emily's supervisor. Is Emily injured?" There were so many pieces of this story missing, she didn't even know where to begin.

"Bumps, bruises, cut to her head, but the docs say she's fine." One of the two suit clad men informed her.

"Okay, then forgive me for being presumptuous, but how about we move this interrogation to your station house? Let her see the girls, then take her over, and somebody will call after Marie has been examined, if she hasn't yet." She didn't want to sound like she was giving orders, that would make them resentful, but Emily clearly needed some time to calm down. And, Cheryl needed to figured out what the hell happened tonight.

"Alright, what floor are the kids on?"

"One floor up, by the emergency room." Matt had called her, and told her what was going on, or at least as much as he knew. Bridget, Emily's four year-old had apparently called him.

"Fine, tell them we're bringing her up, and we'll be up shortly.

"Thank you, I really appreciate this." The two men simply nodded. As far as they could tell this was a battered wife finally getting freedom from her husband, so they'd give the woman the benefit of a doubt.

* * *

"Cheryl, thank god. Have you seen Emily yet?" Matt looked almost as frantic as Emily had. 

"Yeah, just came from there. Has a doctor examined Marie yet?" The young female social worker was on her phone nearby, and the girls were clinging to Matt, which surprised Cheryl. How did the girls even know him?

"Yeah, Bridget said Eddie shook her, I didn't want to take any chances." Cheryl watched her friend of over ten years, stroke the girls heads affectionately, almost as if they were his own. But, they weren't.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Bridget suddenly shouted, leaping from her seat beside Matt, and rushing over to her mother. Her voice woke little Marie, who slid eagerly from Matt's lap, running to her mother.

Emily crouched down and hugged her daughters, kissing their heads, holding them tightly. Both girls looked like their mother: curly red hair, shallow little dimples visible as they smiled seeing her, and hazel eyes, only a shade darker than Emily's. She looked up at Matt and Cheryl.

"Did a doctor look at Marie yet?" There was a fear in her eyes as she asked, imagining what her husband might have done to her baby.

"Yeah, they gave her an MRI, and said it's clear, no bleeding or bruising they could see. She's fine," Matt reported, seemingly relieved by the news.

"Okay, you know now. We have to get you over to homicide so we can talk about what happened tonight." The cop looked uncomfortable breaking up the family, but didn't really have a choice.

"What's going to happen with Bridget and Marie tonight?" Emily's head swung wildly around as she searched the faces, finally landing on the social worker, who just hung up her phone.

"There's a couple vacancies at Hope House, I'll take the girls there for the night."

"What? You can't put them there, their little kids, they'll be instant prey to the rest of those kids!" Emily's eyes had grown frantic again, with a mother's desperation to protect her children.

"You have anybody they can stay with?" The social worker was clearly not impressed, and likely too bogged down with kids in worse situations to exercise that much empathy for these two.

Emily's gaze darted to Matt for only a few seconds, but long enough for them to come to an agreement. She turned to Cheryl. "Can you call Lia?"

"Sure." Cheryl nodded, surprised at the request, figuring she'd send the kids home with Matt, who they seemed comfortable.

"Okay, then time to go. Are you going to follow us?" The cop turned to Cheryl.

"Yeah, I'll meet you out front."

"Great, time to go Ms. Lehman." Emily had never changed her name, everybody knew her as Lehman.

"Okay girls, Mommy has to go somewhere tonight, but Aunt Lia is going to come take you home okay?" She kissed her daughters, who nodded. Bridget was crying, afraid of what was happening, while Marie just held on to her mother, not really understanding anything. Cheryl pulled the little girl off, and handed her to Matt, who she clung to immediately, and Bridget soon went to him. The two detectives led Emily out, without any handcuffs on, mindful of her children, and not really perceiving any threat from her.

"You'll wait with the girls for Lia?" Cheryl asked Matt, already dialing the analyst's number; he nodded, already whispering soothingly to Bridget. Cheryl wondered again about his relationship with the girls.

* * *

"So Ms. Lehman, can you take us through your day, starting with breakfast." She was sitting with Detectives Hamilton and Perdue in an interrogation room, a cup of coffee in front of her. 

"I got ready for work as usual, and got the girls ready for daycare. Eddie was already at the office when I got up; he has, had rather, a big case that's about to go to trial. I drove the girls to Bright Beginnings, their daycare, and then went to work. It was an average day: I did paperwork, taught my class, reviewed some old cases with my coworkers that Washington had sent back down for us to analyze and improve on. I left work just after five, picked the girls up, and was home by six. I put on a Care Bears tape for them, while I got dinner ready. Eddie got home just after we finished dinner, I was cleaning up, the girls were in the living room, playing." She took a deep breath, this was where it got messy.

"_How was work?" Emily was washing the dinner dishes when Eddie walked in the door, looking none to pleased._

"_Judge let the plaintiffs get in some evidence that hurts my clients, so really fucking bad." He was a corporate attorney, defending huge companies against law suits by irate people._

"_Can you keep your voice down when you curse, the girls are in the other room?" She hated that it didn't matter to him when the girls saw him upset, because it scared them._

"_I don't really give a shit, they've heard it before, they'll hear it again, they should just get used to it." She could sense he was in one of his moods, and her body immediately tensed._

"_Where's dinner?" _

"_There's a plate for you in the fridge." Emily didn't look up from her dishes, her body already quivering in anticipation of the first blow. She heard the door open, and him take the dish out, and close it._

"_It's cold."_

"_Heat it the microwave then, it won't take more than two minutes." _

"_Couldn't it just once be hot when I get home? Or hell, I'd even take warm at this point."_

"_The girls are hungry when we get home, and I want them fed early so I can get them to bed at a descent hour."_

"_Do you purposely get them in bed before I get home?" _

"_What? No, of course not." Eddie was always home late, and the girls needed to be in bed before then._

"_Don't fucking lie to me, Emily!" He grabbed her arm, hard, digging his fingers in._

"_I'm not!" She insisted angrily, trying to twist away from him. _

"_Yes you are! You bitch, you're trying to keep my kids away from me!" He yelled in her face, twisting her arm behind her._

"_No, Eddie, I swear I'm not," she whimpered, hating how weak she was._

"_Damn it! I told you not to fucking lie to me, you bitch!" He pushed her up against the nearby wall, resting an arm against her throat._

"_Eddie…Eddie please," she begged. _

"_Mommy?" Bridget's voice startled them both, and they turned to door to see both of their daughters staring in fear. _

"_Hey, there's my girls!" Eddie said gleefully, releasing Emily, and going over to the girls, crouching to their level._

"_Hey Daddy," Bridget did as she was expected and hugged, him watching her mother with fear in her eyes the whole time. But, Marie was too young to know how to hide her fear, to know to lie, so when her daddy came toward her, she backed away. _

"_Come on Marie, give Daddy a hug?" He held his arms to her, and Bridget tried to push her baby sister toward him, but she just backed away further, clutching a stuffed dog to her chest._

"_Damn it, Marie come here!" Eddie yelled angrily at the frightened child, and grabbed her up, just as she began to cry._

"_Eddie, stop it, you're scaring her!" Emily yelled at him, rushing over._

"_Shut up Emily! Marie calm down, it's okay…damn it, you calm the fuck down!" He screamed and began shaking her violently when she wouldn't quiet down._

"_Eddie! Eddie stop it, now!" Emily yelled back at him, grabbing the hysterical child from his painful grip and cradling her to her chest. Eddie was seething, but she ignored him, and bent down to Bridget. _

"_Sweetie, Mommy and Daddy need to talk okay. Come on, upstairs." She took Bridget's hand and walked toward the stairs, Marie still in her arms, sobbing. Once again, she bent to her daughters level, setting Marie back on her own feet, and whispered to them._

"_Bridge, I need you to take your sister upstairs, you remember what Mommy told you, you might need to do one day?" She had prepared her older child for the day her husband's anger got out of control, and tonight she had disobeyed him, yelled back, and taken his child away from him. Tonight would be back, and tomorrow she might not see._

_Bridget nodded, tears pricking her eyes, more scared than she'd ever been in her short life. Emily kissed both her girls, and sent them hurriedly off upstairs, before turning back to face the wrath of her husband._

_He grabbed her by her hair and pulled her over to the living room. "Don't you fucking ever tell me no in front of my children! No wonder Marie is so scared, you turned her against me!"_

"_Marie loves you Eddie, but not when you get angry." She spoke so calmly, though her scalp burned, just like the fury in his eyes. She twisted away from him, clutching her sore head._

"_Eddie damn it, I told you, I told you, you can hit me as much as you like, I'll survive. But, so help me, I will not watch you hurt the girls! You lay a hand on either one of them ever again, and I will leave you, and take them with me, and you will never see them again." She knew she was playing with fire, but she had to make it sink in, make sure he understood she was serious._

"_You fucking worthless whore! I was right, you're trying to take them from me!" He launched himself at her, grabbing her wrists, pinning her to the wall. Chest heaving, he roughly yanked her away from the wall, and threw her to the floor, her head hitting the glass coffee table behind them. She sat on the floor, holding her now bleeding head, body quivering._

"_Get up." She didn't move, but glared up at him._

"_I said, Get Up." He didn't wait for her to even try, but yanked her up by another patch of hair, and stood her up in front of himself._

"_Don't you ever talk to me like that! Don't you ever fucking think you can threaten me!" _

"_Fuck you." She used the last once of courage she had and spit the words in his sadistic face._

"_Oh yeah? We can do that." He grinned and tossed her half onto a chair, moving toward her belt buckle._

"_Please, please Eddie don't!" She begged him, but he just ignored her, even as she swatted at his hands. He slapped her hard to stop her, and resumed his work on the button of her jeans._

"_Please, Eddie…Eddie, I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant…" she pled breathlessly with him, finally getting him to stop. _

"_What?" His eyes suddenly lit with something other than anger. _

"_I'm pregnant, we're having another baby." Her bottom lip shook, and she bit it to make it stop, covering her eyes so he would see her tears._

"_A little boy?"_

_She nodded, "Maybe, we won't know for a while."_

"_This is great news!" He pulled her off of the chair and into his arms, holding her tightly, even as she shook and wept. Emily stood in his arms, wondering how her life had become what it was, wondering how she could protect three children from him._

"_Why are you crying?" He pulled her back and stared at her._

"_I'm, I'm not," she struggled even as she felt the tears fall down her cheeks._

"_Don't fucking lie to me! Why do you always have to fucking lie to me?!" He bellowed, kicking the glass coffee table and watching it shatter against the wall. _

_Emily took his distracted moment, to run to the kitchen and yank her gun from it's lockbox on top of a cabinet. Eddie ran in just as she was bringing it up in his direction, tears still streaming down her face, body still quivering, but hands still as a stone statue in the familiar stance. _

"_What the hell are you doing with that, Emily?" _

"_Stay back Eddie."_

"_You friggin idiot, what hell do you think you're going to do with that? I bet you have the worst aim in the whole fucking Bureau." He stepped toward her, taunting her._

"_Stop it, I told you to stay back!"_

"_Since when do I take orders from you, you dumb bitch? I swear I don't even know why I married you sometimes." He again moved closer, now only two feet from her._

"_Eddie goddamn it, stop moving!"_

"_You weak, pathetic, coward of a bitch, you don't have the guts to shoot me." He went to take the last step, hands reaching out towards her. Emily pulled the trigger in a triple burst, just as she been taught, and watched red splotches appear on her husbands shirt, just before he fell to the floor. Finally, she heard sirens coming toward the apartment. _

* * *

I know I said I wouldn't do anymore chaptered fiction, but I get very bored at work, and need something to occupy my mind. And, I miss the show. Thanks for reading and please review!_  
_


	2. Chapter 2

"So, it was self defense then?" Detective Hamilton asked, jotting notes on his pad. He looked up at Emily tear streaked face and watched her nod, hands shaking as she grabbed her dozenth tissue of the night.

"I didn't know what else to do, it just kept getting worse and my girls, I couldn't let him hurt my girls. And, I just wanted to keep him restrained until the cops got there, but he didn't think I do it." She hadn't wanted to kill him, but he hadn't given her a choice. And, now, she couldn't say she regretted her actions.

"Okay, I think we've got what we need, just give us a minute to talk to the DA, and confirm we won't be prosecuting." Detective Perdue told her, as both got up and walked out of the interrogation room.

"You won't prosecute her then?" Cheryl was behind the glass, with the DA and Homicide Lieutenant. The DA held up a stack of papers.

"The cops have gotten about a half a dozen calls from worried neighbors, and she's been in the ER three times, just in the eight months they've been in town. I bet if I called Atlanta, I would fine ten times this. She did society a favor, cut her loose." The DA shook his head in disgust, and nodded a confirmation at the detectives. After leaving LA, Emily had been transferred to Atlanta, where she'd met Eddie, married him, and began living her nightmare existence.

Cheryl sighed in relief, the Bureau would likely take the same position, rather than condemn one of their own for defending herself and her children. She walked into the interrogation room on the other side of the mirror.

"Hey, DA isn't going to prosecute." Emily sighed, her shoulders slumping, all the fight and adrenaline having seeped out and deflated her.

"I can go then?"

"Yep, I'll square this with the upper-ups. But, one thing…are you really pregnant?"

Emily seemed surprised at first by the question. "You were listening in."

"Yeah, my right as your supervisor. God, Emily, I wish you'd have told me, I wished I'd seen it. I'm so sorry I didn't." Cheryl slid into a chair, looking guiltily at the deep purple seeping into the left side of her face, and the bandage on the opposite side, where she'd hit the coffee table.

"It's okay, I didn't let anyone see it…It wasn't always so bad, he cried when Bridget was born…but, something changed after that, like something snapped inside him. I didn't want to see it at first, and then I didn't want to admit I was letting myself be beaten." She held up a hand before Cheryl could protest her statement. "But, it got a lot worse once we came back to LA."

"Why didn't you say anything? We could have helped you, you know Duff and Frank are going to wish they had the chance to pummel his ass…Matt too."

She shrugged, she knew people who were never in that situation couldn't understand what it was like, why you keep your mouth shut. "You think my girls will forgive me one day?"

"For taking their father away? I think when they're old enough to understand all of this, they'll thank you. And, so will this new one." Cheryl motioned to Emily's stomach.

"This one won't have to." She spoke so quietly she almost missed it.

"What? What do you mean?"

"This one isn't Eddie's." The smallest twitch of her face showed the smallest little smile.

"Then who…?" Emily shook her head and put a finger up to her lips, gesturing toward the glass.

At that moment, one of three stunned LAPD cops entered the room. This new knowledge that she was having an affair changed everything, it wasn't as clear cut as it seemed. "Ms. Lehman, we'd like permission to question your older daughter, Bridget."

"What? Why?" Emily straightened up, alarmed.

"Just to confirm your story. We can get a court order."

"Fine, but she's probably at Lia's now, sleeping, can it wait?"

"Actually, the social worker kept that at the hospital awhile, talking with the girls, and your friend, Lia. They came by half an hour ago to drop off your other friend, Matt, and stayed, so we'd like to question her know."

"O-okay, can I sit in with her?"

"We'd prefer you didn't, but you can watch through the glass if that makes you more comfortable."

"Okay." Emily felt very uneasy about it, but what choice did she have?

* * *

"Hello Bridget, I'm Detective Perdue, but you can call my Jimmy. Do you know what happened tonight?" 

She nodded and smiled. "The dragon came and saved Mommy."

"The dragon?"

"Yeah, dragons are good, they help people," she explained matter-of-factly. Perdue nodded at her slowly, the way adults do at crazy people and young children making up stories.

"Okay Bridget, can you tell me what you saw tonight?" He was careful to word it differently, so as not to tap into the child's fantasy again.

"Daddy got mad at Mommy. He gets mad at Mommy a lot…he hurts her."

"And your Daddy was hurting your Mommy tonight?"

"Yeah. Then he hurt Marie, and Mommy got mad, so she sent us upstairs to do the emergency thing." The little girl sat swinging her legs, and playing her fingers, not looking at the detective.

"What's the emergency thing?"

"A long time ago, Mommy told me what I might have to do for an emergency. I took Marie and we hid in the closest in our bedroom, where Mommy hid the phone. She said Daddy wouldn't find it there, and if we hid real good, he wouldn't find us either." She looked nervously up at the detective, her wide hazel eyes looking up at him, her teeth worrying her lip in much the mannerism of her mother.

"Okay, and what else did she tell you to do for the emergency thing?"

"She showed me how to press the buttons for 9-1-1. I told them Daddy was hurting Mommy, they nice lady said she was going to send some policemen. Then I hung up and called Matt." This jolted Detective Perdue, and the four people behind the glass, the other detective, DA, Emily and Cheryl.

"Oh yeah, why did you call him?" Now he was getting somewhere, now he was intrigued.

"He was afraid about Mommy, and me and Marie. He gave me a card, and showed me how to press the buttons for him." She looked very proud of herself, she remembered how to press the buttons for both 911 and Matt.

"Really, when did he do that?"

"When Daddy was away. Matt comes to visit when Daddy is away. He's Mommy's friend." She watched curiously as the Detective's eyes widened.

"I'll bet he is. Can you excuse me a minute sweetie?" He smiled at the child, who'd just made her mother's motives very questionable.

He walked into the room on the other side of the mirror, as everyone turned to look at Emily, whose hand was covering her mouth in horror.

"I think there's something you haven't been telling us, care to share, or should I ask Bridget what Mommy and Matt do when Daddy is away?"

"She won't say what you're thinking. We never did that when I had the girls with me. If you really want to know I'll tell you."

"Oh we're all ears."

"Five years ago, Matt and I ended it after almost a year and a half. I got scared, he was hurt, and I ran, because I couldn't handle it. I met Eddie a few months later and threw myself into that, got pregnant with Bridget quickly and married even quicker. It was easy with Eddie, I didn't need to think with him, we were both always working. We moved back to LA for his job a few months after I had Marie, and I went back to working at the CNU I left, under Cheryl."

"With your ex-boyfriend," Perdue stated, understanding.

"Yeah, and I learned that just because you leave, marry someone else, and have two kids, doesn't mean you stop loving him. Especially when your husband is a miserable monster."

"So what, you started an affair?"

"Eddie used to leave for a week, two weeks to consult with clients. I'd been back in LA for about a month when he left the first time, and it had been kind of awkward at work, so Matt showed up one night, wanting to talk. We did, and it was great, well into the night. He even talked to the girls, and helped me get them ready for bed. I realized how much I missed him, missed being with him. So, I guess you can say it started that night, emotionally anyway."

"And when did it become sexual?"

"A month after that, on Eddie's next trip. The daycare took the kids on a trip to see "Stone Soup", so they weren't going to be back until late. Matt picked another good day to show up at my door."

"Hey, how's it going?" He wore that cocky grin he always had, though his insides were churning. He knew her husband was on another business trip, that's why he came, contrary to everything in his head telling him that was a bad idea.

"_Good, I'm alone for the first time in three and a half years, I don't know what to do with myself." She smiled back at him, wishing for a moment she could travel back to when things were simpler, and she was hopelessly in love with the man who shared her bed, the man standing in front of her then._

"_Oh? Where are the girls?" _

"_On a trip with their daycare, they won't be back until seven." It was only a quarter to six._

"_Daycares take trips?" He asked, bewildered, sitting beside her on the couch._

"_Yeah, imagine that right? My preschoolers have a more cultured life than I do." She grinned again, and showed him those dimples he'd been dreaming of for the last three and a half years._

_Neither really knew how it happened, but both wanted it, and at first Matt was afraid he crossed a line and wreaked the friendship they were building. Her tongue proved otherwise. She wrapped her legs around him, and he just barely found his way to the bedroom, both flopping down with a giggle. _

_He ran his hands under her shirt, pulling it up over her head, breathing in sharply at the sight of the finger bruises on her arm, and new and fading black and blues on her upper body. He stopped and stared at her, fear and horror in his eyes, unable to believe what he was seeing. _

"_Did he do this?" It was the only explanation he could think of, Emily's husband was abusing her._

_She turned away, embarrassed. "It doesn't matter." He turned her head back to face him, and stared deep into her eyes._

"_Did Eddie do this to you?" She nodded, struggling to hold back tears. _

"_Son of a bitch, I'll kill him."_

"_No Matt, no. Just make love to me know. Please? I need to be with you." Now that she had the chance, she had to take it, she had to feel him. He nodded, though he wanted to hunt her husband down and rip him apart. He kissed along her collarbone, her breasts, her stomach, before meeting her mouth again. She yanked at his shirt, pulled it over his head, exposing his chest to her. She kissed along his muscles, so familiar to her, even after so many years apart. _

_She worked his jeans off, cupping him through his boxers, feeling him go hard. He gasped and kissed the pleased grin off her face. He worked her button, and removed her jeans, yanking them off her body, exposing more bruising. There were new finger-shaped bruises overlapping old ones on the inside edges of her thighs, as if someone had roughly pried them open. _

"_Oh god, please tell me he didn't," Mat begged her, not wanting to believe what she'd be going through the last few years._

"_Shh…make love to me, Matt. Please, just make love to me." Her eyes stung with tears again. Again, he swallowed the anger burning inside him, deciding he deal with the man later, and give Emily what she needs now._

_He placed delicate kisses on the bruises, feeling her quiver beneath his touch. His soft touch roaming over her body, removed her panties, and his own boxers soon followed. Inhaling sharply in anticipation, he entered her slowly, feeling her quiver again, and hearing her whimper. She held tightly to him, as they moved, a rhythm so familiar, but exciting to both it was almost overpowering. When is was over, she curled against him, and wept, overwhelmed that she could feel so loved again, so safe, after so many years of feeling hated and terrified._

"_You can't stay with him Em." Matt broke the silence, kissing her temple._

"_I can't leave him, he'll kill me." She'd contemplated it over the years, always seeing it end with the same result._

"_We'll get a restraining order, he'll be arrested for assault and stuck in jail. I'll protect you."_

"_Restraining orders don't work, and he'll be let out on bail. And, what about my kids Matt, can you protect them too?" _

"_The girls, does he hurt them too?" He was almost afraid to ask, what if Marie's arms were covered in bruises from being grabbed? Even worse, what if Bridget had thigh bruises to match her mothers? He would surely murder Eddie then, and it wouldn't be quick, he'd make him suffer._

"_No, he's never hurt them. If he did, I'd kill him myself."_

"_Thank god. Em, we still have to get you out of here, you can't live like this." He was begging now._

"_I have the last almost four years, I'll be fine. There's a safe way to leave him Matt, I just have to find it, give me time. For now, please just be here for me, like this." She ran a finger along the side of his face, almost unable to believe how much she missed him._

"_Okay, if that's what you want…I still love you Em." He tensed slightly, would she get scared again?_

"_I know, I still love you too." She didn't even flinched, just stayed pressed against him, before turning to the clock. "Come on, time to get up. I have to get the girls."_

* * *

I have the week off, so I'm going to try to get this story finished this week, so frequent updates! Thanks very much for reading and reviewing, it's so nice to see other people haven't forgotten the show! 


	3. Chapter 3

"So, it didn't bother you then, sleeping with a married woman?" Detective Hamilton asked Matt, trying to get his goat.

"The bastard was abusing her, he didn't deserve her, so no, it didn't bother me." It might have if her husband had been a nice guy, but Matt didn't exactly have friendly feelings for him.

"And you think you do…deserve her that is?" He leaned back, impressed with the man's passion.

"Maybe not, but I love her, I respect her, and I would never hurt her."

"And what about her little girls? They aren't yours, they come with her now, sort of a package deal…do you really want to be saddled with someone else's kids?"

"Those little girls are part of Emily, I'd love them just for that, but I've spent time with them. They're wonderful; Bridget clearly inherited her mother's brains, and at the very least Marie got her heart."

"So tell me then, how is it you got to know her children?" So far, he wasn't giving away anything that could hurt either one of them.

"When Eddie was out of town for a week, I'd go over a few days to see Emily, and the girls were always there. I just started playing with them, all four of us, just having a good time. It was nice."

_"Can I get the door Mommy!" Bridget yelled excitedly. Her daughters were so much more alive when her husband was away, so uninhibited without him to scare them._

_"No, you cannot, you never know who can be at the door, only Mommy and Daddy get to answer the door." She smiled down at her, while yanking the door open._

"_Matt!" Bridget squealed, throwing her arms around his legs. He'd been visiting them for four months, always when Eddie was away._

"_Hey Munchkin, have you been good since I last saw you?" He knelt in front of her smiling._

"_Of course, I'm always good," she declared proudly._

"_Don't I know it." He smiled and rose back up to see Emily._

"_Bridge, can you go sit with your sister for a few minutes?" Emily looked pointedly at her daughter, it wasn't a mere suggestion._

"_Okay, but…is Matt gonna stay awhile?" _

"_Yes, he's going to stay. Off you go now." She ushered the giggling, excited child off to the living room. _

"_A little strict, maybe?" He nodded his head toward where Bridget had just run off. Emily shut the door, her body getting very close to his, and with a wicked grin, pressed her mouth firmly to his. Matt released a soft, pent up moan; it had been a month since he'd last kissed her, three since that day they had sex. In other words, it had been way too long._

"_I needed that…oh, I needed that," Emily breathed, eyes closed, still feeling his lips on hers._

"_You and me both." Matt was getting his head screwed back on after that oxygen-stealing surprise._

"_Come on, Bridget's been asking for you since Eddie left with his suitcase." She took his hand and led him to the living room._

"_God, she's smart…she hasn't said anything in front of Eddie, right?" _

"_Of course not, you said yourself, she's smart, besides, I'd be dead if she had." She said it almost jokingly, but both knew it was true._

"_What about Marie?" He chose to ignore it, he'd been begging her for months to let him help her get out._

"_She's smart too, and I think Bridget's been telling her not to mention you too."_

"_Good." _

"_Att!" Marie giggled and clapped her hands._

"_Hey Munchkin two," He lifted her off the floor, wiggling her in the air, as she laughed and giggled uncontrollably. _

"_So, what are you girls working on?" He set Marie back on the floor, in front of the plastic tray covered with various colors of playdough. _

"_A doggy," Marie smiled holding up an unshappen blob of brown dough._

"_I'm making a turtle!" Bridget held up her green blob, with five well placed smaller green blobs, that almost resembled a turtle._

"_Wow, they're fantastic."_

"_Pony," Marie instructed quietly, handing Matt the brown blob, plus a yellow one._

"_That's a beautiful pony," he told her, somewhat confused as to why it was in two parts._

"_No, silly, she wants you to make her a pony."_

"_Ohhh," he turned to Emily with an amused smile. "She wants a pony."_

"_Every little girl does." She grinned at him, silent up until then, quiet to watch him interact with the girls._

"_Well, Marie, I'll see what I can do." He told the little girl, who'd already moved on to constructing something with red playdough that kind of looked like a disfigured fire hydrant. He spent the neck half hour, struggling to get the dough to conform without caving in, because it was so soft. Finally, he had a brown something, with four legs, a horse-esque head, and yellow mane and tail. _

"_There you go, one pony for one princess." He proudly handed her his creation. She immediately dropped the blue lump she moved on to, and grabbed the pony with a big smile. _

"_Cool! Can you make me a dragon?!" Bridget asked excitedly, already handing him the green, orange, and red playdough._

"_A dragon? No pony, no kitty, no teddy bear, I thought that's what little girls liked?"_

"_I like dragons, they stop bad people, like in Shrek." She looked sadly down at the tray; it didn't take a shrink to know why she wanted that dragon. _

_Emily bit her lip, and felt tears sting her eyes. She excused herself and hurried into the kitchen, Matt watching worriedly after her._

"_Give me one minute, and I'll be back to make your dragon." He hurried off after Emily, who he found pacing around the kitchen._

"_You okay?"_

"_No. My four year-old wants a dragon to get rid of her father. God, how the hell did I let it get here? She shouldn't have to live with this, Matt, she shouldn't have to see what he does." She stood staring into his eyes, guilt and sadness radiating out of her own._

"_She's young, and she's strong, just like you, and we're going to get you out of this remember? We're going to find a way for you to get out." He rubbed her shoulders and arms, and she leaned into him. They tried not to touch each other when the girls were around, so as not to confuse them, or upset them._

_It took him an hour, but Matt created a pretty decent-looking dragon, which Bridget went crazy over. She begged Emily to let her keep it in her room, a symbol of her imaginary protective guardian. Of course, Emily let her, on the condition she not pout about bath time. She didn't, and even made a messy attempt at trying to help with Marie, which sent Matt and Emily into a fit of laughter, and Marie looking quite confused. Matt helped Emily get them dried off, and in their pajamas, then swept them off to bed, where they demanded a story. He picked a book and before he even got halfway through, Bridget pointed out that Mommy read stories better, so he handed the book over to her, and she finished. Finally Bridget's eyes closed at the last page, Marie already off in LaLa Land, and the adults left them to sleep._

"_They should have been yours," Emily suddenly blurted out the thought she'd been thinking for months. Matt stared at her in surprise, not sure how he was supposed to react to that._

"_I should have stayed, I shouldn't have run away, the girls should have been yours, they should have been ours. Eddie doesn't deserve them." _

"_You think if you had stayed, we would have had kids by now?" _

"_I don't know, but in these last few months, you've been more of a father to them than Eddie has in the last few years. They aren't afraid of you."_

_He nodded solemnly, and finally admitted what he'd be thinking for years. "I should have gone after you, I should have let you go at your own pace, I'm sorry I didn't. And Em? I wish they were."_

_

* * *

_

"So he got close to your children, and they like him?" Detective Perdue patiently asked.

"Yes, they loved seeing him, he gave them what they should have been getting from their father." Emily ran a hand through her hair, almost too tired to continued with this questioning.

"So, you continued these visits whenever your husband was away?"

"Yeah, he'd come over, or I'd take the girls and meet him at the park. I took them to his house a few times."

"Now, you said you never had sex while the girls were around?"

"No, never."

"So, then I have to ask you Ms. Lehman, are you actually pregnant?" It couldn't have been from that first time she mentioned, she'd have been huge by now.

"Yes, I am. Nine weeks."

"So then, is the baby your husband's?"

"No, the baby is Matt's."

"Okay, then I have two questions for you. How can you be sure, you did after all, have two sexual partners? And, when did you resume your affair?"

"I know because a woman knows whose baby is growing inside her. As for the affair…the day after he came over and did the playdough thing."

_"Do want to get lunch with me today, say fifteen minutes?" Emily dropped by her former partner's cubicle, the same one they'd shared five years ago, and which at the moment, was fortunately empty except for Matt._

"_Sounds good, where were you thinking of going?" They didn't socialize much at work, they didn't want anybody wondering why they were getting along so well, considering their history._

"_The Marriott." The look she was shooting him was completely serious, not to mention a familiar one._

"_Are you sure?" God knew, he wanted it badly._

"_Yes, you get the room, I don't want it showing up on my bills, and call me with the number." If Eddie saw hotel charges on their credit card statement, he would surely kill her._

"_Of course, I'll see you then." She disappeared, just as his partner returned, looking at him curiously._

"_Word on the rumor mill is that you used to date her, that it was pretty serious." Ceara raised an eyebrow, her partner was brilliant at his job, but an idiot when it came to women, always going for the wrong ones._

"_For once the rumor mill got it right. I was going to ask her to marry me, but she left before I could." He shrugged as if it were no big deal._

"_Really? You don't seem to hate her, and you certainly didn't look angry right now?" _

"_It's hard to hate someone you're still in love with." _

"_Oh god Flannery, you realize she's married now right?"_

"_Yes, Ceara I know that, and do me a favor and don't repeat what I told you, especially to Cheryl." Cheryl would castrate him if she found out he was still in love with her, let alone that he'd slept with her (though that was a secret kept just between the two of them). _

"_Of course, I'm your partner, I keep my lips zipped with anything you tell me. Besides, Cheryl gets pissed at you and I suffer too. Just do us both a favor and keep it in your pants." Matt nodded, all the while thinking it was a little too late for that._

_As promised, fifteen minutes later he was handing a credit card to the desk concierge, and getting the key for room 723, a simple room with the basic necessities, and a king-sized bed. He hopped the elevator, feeling as strong sense of déjà vu. He hadn't been in this hotel for nearly seven years, for their last secret rendezvous, before they actually began dating._

_He took off his leather jacket, and sat on the bed, feeling somewhat awkward. He wondered which was considered worse, having second with your partner or having sex with a married woman? How had they gotten back to sneaking around again? He didn't have much time to contemplate further, fortunately, as he heard a shy knock at the door._

_He pulled it open, and ushered her in, neither physically able to wait before they began tearing each other's clothes off. It was as it had always been between them—utterly mind-blowing. Anybody who couldn't understand the concept of chemistry would only need to take a turn in their shoes to figure it out. There was just something about their bodies that clicked, that made them crazy for each other. And, then there was something emotional between them, something called love, that just blew everything out of the water. _

_Thank god it was the middle of the day, nobody was in the rooms on either side of them to complain about the noise. After they finished, they simply laid there, tangled up in each other, bodies quivering as they came down from the high. They spooned tightly together, curling as if they were one form, the same position they fell asleep in most nights when they'd been dating._

* * *

"And this became a pattern, these lunch-time rendezvous?" Detective Hamilton pressed Matt.

"Yeah, only the weeks Eddie was away. Those weeks we didn't really eat lunch, and I can't say we really missed it."

"Okay, and this…relationship continued up until tonight?"

"Yeah, last time Eddie went away was two weeks ago."

"And the kids, what about them?"

"What do you mean, what about the kids?"

"Did you continue seeing her children?" Perdue was losing patience with him.

"Yes, I did. Whenever Eddie left for a week, after work Emily and I would meet up, and she'd bring the girls. Sometimes it was her apartment, sometimes my house, a puppet show, a couple movies, things like that. The girls seemed to have fun."

"And, it didn't feel weird, playing dad to someone else's children?"

"Sure, we were sneaking around behind Eddie's back, it didn't exactly feel right. But, whenever I considered that, I'd think about the last set of bruises I found on Emily, and I'd get a little pleasure knowing how pissed he'd be if he ever found out."

"Real nice. What exactly is your relationship with those little girls?"

Matt sighed and leaned back. "Two months ago, Eddie went away for two weeks, so I spent the weekend with Em and the girls. That's when I realized I was beginning to love them as much as I did their mother."

_"Can we see the monkeys now, Mommy? Please!" Bridget begged her mother, whose hand she held as they walked through the zoo. Matt, their new friend, was taking them for a treat, her mother tried to tell him it wasn't necessary, but Matt insisted._

_"Sure we can, let's find them on the map." She crouched down next to Bridget and studied the diagram, noting they weren't too far from the primate zone._

_"I made peepee, Mommy," Marie told her quietly, from Matt's arms, who nodded his agreement, suddenly feeling the little girl's diaper grow warm and squishy._

_"Okay, we need to hit a bathroom first Bridge. And, good there's one on the way." Emily grabbed Marie from Matt, and led the way to the bathrooms._

_"Come on Bridge."_

_"I don't need to go, Mommy."_

_"Are you sure?"_

_"Yeah, I went to the potty at lunch, remember?"_

_"Yes, I do. Okay, wait with Matt, okay? Be good."_

_"I will." Bridget liked Matt, she didn't want to give him a hard time, as her daddy described it._

_"Matt? You love my Mommy." She leaned against a fence, and studied him much like an adult would, reading from him, what some adults would miss._

_"Can you keep a secret Bridge?" He crouched in front of her, and she nodded her head enthusiastically._

_"I love your mommy very much."_

_She suddenly look sad. "I don't think Daddy does."_

_"Oh yeah? Why do you think that?" How much did the little girl know about what her father put her mother through?_

_"He yells at her a lot, and hits her. You aren't supposed to hit, they yell at us at school when we hit. And some nights he gets really mad, and they go into their room. I can hear Mommy crying, and then she doesn't come out for a long time. I think he hurts her real bad." She looked up at him then, her big, innocent eyes asking him why her daddy would do that._

_"You know, I think you're right Bridge, I don't think your daddy loves your mommy. But, I know they both love you and Marie, so you don't have to worry."_

_"But, I love Mommy, I don't want him to hurt her. I'm afraid." Her bottom lip shook, as she expressed her fear for the first time._

_Matt thought for a minute, how could he reassure a child who carried the same fears as him?_

_"It scares me too, Bridget, so I'm going to give you this." He held out his business card for her, and pulled out his phone. "See these numbers down here? Can you find them on my phone?"_

_She nodded, she could count to ten, she'd learned at school. She went through and found nine of the buttons in order, pressing each one._

_"Good, that's my number. If you ever get really scared, you take your sister and hide, and you call me, okay? I'll come right over, and I'll make sure your Mommy is okay."_

_She nodded at him, studying the card like a prized possession. "Mommy told me that too, she told me to call a place if I got really scared, it only had three numbers."_

_Matt nodded, trust Emily to prepare her daughter for the worst. "You call them first, and then you call me, okay?" She nodded and stretched herself up to give him a hug. Matt kissed the top of her head, and hugged her back._

_God help him if Eddie ever hurt the girls, he'd shoot first and spit on the bastard's bleeding corpse._

* * *

Thanks for reading! And, thank you very much reviewers!


	4. Chapter 4

"So, he was getting to know your kids, and you were happy about this, right?" Perdue looked skeptically at the FBI Agent in front of him. The more he heard, the more it began to sound like she and her boyfriend conspired to kill her husband, a premeditated murder.

"Yes…no…I don't know, I didn't really think about it. But, my girls, they were happy, they weren't afraid of him, like they were their father, and he was so good with them, and I don't know, I liked that. I liked being able to pretend I'd made the right decision five years ago, and we were a regular, normal family." Emily struggled, it hadn't been a conscious decision to allow her children to become so close to Matt.

"Okay, so you've been having this affair, and obviously your husband doesn't know. When did you know you were pregnant?"

"I found out almost a month ago. Once you've had two kids, you know what the signs are, you know when you're pregnant. I took a test, it was positive, I went to my doctor, who told me I was five weeks along."

"And you knew it was Matt's?" He finished for her.

"Yes, I knew it was his."

"So, you have two little girls, who are afraid of your husband, who beats the piss out of you whenever he feels like it, and now you're pregnant with another man's baby. And, I get the feeling Matt wouldn't like the idea of you continuing to live with the asshole, while you're having his baby." He could feel it, he was getting close to when they must have started plotting together.

"No, Matt wanted me to leave him. _I _wanted to leave him."

"Hey, come on in, the girls are in the living room. We're about to watch 'The Never-Ending Story'." Emily shut the door, and as soon as she turned Matt captured her lips, enjoying their regular arrival kiss.

"_Matt!" Bridget squealed running up to him, just as they made it into the living room._

"_Hey Bridge, I missed you!" He grabbed her up, and she wrapped her arms and legs around him, grinning hugely._

"_Me too! And Marie too, she kept asking me about you!" It almost seemed as if someone had fed the four year-old jet fuel, she was so excited. Matt fell onto the couch with her, sending her giggling. Marie jumped on his lap, hugging him around the neck, and then sitting back and clapping her hands excitedly. _

"_Okay guys, let's start this movie so you can get to bed at a sensible hour." Emily ushered them into getting into comfortable spots on the couch, while an amused Matt looked on, then she finally sat herself and started the movie._

_When it was over, they tucked the girls into bed, and Emily took Matt's hand and led him toward her bedroom, closing the door most of the way, but leaving a crack open to hear the girls if they yelled. She walked over to the bed, still holding his hand, and sat down, pulling him to sit beside her. _

"_Matt, I need to tell you something. I don't know if you're going to think it's good or bad…" Emily struggled to form the words, biting her lip, awkwardly buying time._

"_Em, whatever it is just tell me." He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and held her face in his hand._

"_I'm pregnant." She went back to biting her lip, as Matt's eyes widened._

"_Is…is it mine?" God, he was hoping it was._

_She nodded. "Yeah, yes, it's our baby."_

_Instead of replying, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. When he did comment, he spoke very quietly. "This is good, Em. This is definitely good."_

"_Imagine, now I get to tell Cheryl I got pregnant on my lunch break." She grinned into his shoulder, she was going to love that._

_Matt laughed, but quickly grew serious again, pulling away, so he could look into her face. "Emily, I know you wanted time, but it's been months now, and this," he touched her stomach, "this speeds things up a little. We need to get you and the girls out of here."_

"_I know, but I don't know how to protect them Matt. He's their father, he hasn't hurt them, he has a right to see them, but I'm afraid he will, to hurt me. If he can't beat me anymore, I'm afraid he'll use the girls to punish me." Matt could see the fear in her eyes, and he felt a similar fear for the girls, for Emily, and for his unborn child._

"_How far along are you?" _

"_Six weeks, I'll start to show in a couple months. I want to get out of here before he knows I'm pregnant." It would be easier if he didn't know, if he didn't think he was going to be a father for the third time._

"_We'll figure it out Em, I promise we'll figure it out, and you and the girls will be safe."_

* * *

"Okay Matt, tell me about tonight."

"I got a call from Bridget, she was crying and scared. She told me that she and Marie were hiding in the closet in their room, and she'd called 911. She said, "Daddy is really angry, because Mommy yelled at him for hurting Marie." She could hear him still yelling at Emily. I told her I was on my way over, and stayed on the phone until I got to the house and saw the girls. Emily was already in an ambulance on the way to the hospital when I got there, and I never even walked inside the house. The cops found the girls before I got there. I explained that I was a friend, and waited for the social worker to arrive, then all four of us went to the hospital."

"When was it exactly that Emily decided to kill her husband?" Hamilton hoped to jolt him into revealing the truth.

"I don't know. I imagine when she got desperate enough to go for her gun, like I already told you, I wasn't there, I don't know what was going through her head." Matt ran a hand through his hair, mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted.

"It's pretty clear you two set this up, not that I'm saying the prick didn't have it coming to him. A doc examined Emily pretty thoroughly in the hospital, and she's got some pretty awful bruises. It's piss me off to see those on a woman I loved." Hamilton settled back in his seat, relaxed, as if they were just two guys in casual conversation.

"It did piss me off, and that is the one complaint I have tonight."

"What's you complaint?" This was going nowhere real quick.

"That I didn't get to kill Eddie myself." Matt usually soft brown eyes were burning with anger, and staring intensely at the detective.

"You could have if you planned better." Hamilton pulled his eyes away, shaking away the hostility raging from his suspect.

"We didn't plan it. Believe me, if we had, I would have made sure I was the one who put that miserable bastard in the ground. Emily has two little girls, and our baby on the way, I wouldn't risk her getting prison time." Matt sighed again, it would have been so much easier if they'd planned it, he'd willing have gone to jail for her.

Hamilton studied the FBI agent for several minutes, getting a read on him. Yes, he believed this man, the anger in his eyes, the over-protectiveness revealed in his body language when he spoke about Emily. In fact, Perdue realized, he was surprised Eddie lived this long.

"You're free to go Matt." He got up and held the door, while the agent passed through, sliding into the room on the opposite side of the mirror.

"Matt, over here." Cheryl got his attention.

"Hey."

"We need to talk. Now." She led him into an empty office, trying to maintain her level of calm, but it wasn't working so well.

"I don't know what I should start with…why the hell didn't you tell me Emily was being abused? I would have had two agents haul that son of a bitch's ass in, and began prosecuting him for assaulting a federal agent!"

"Because Emily wasn't ready. Come on Cheryl, you know about the mentality of battered women, we had to study it during training. They aren't emotionally able to leave, until they come to that decision themselves. If you try and force them, they just go back. She never would have testified against him then, and he would have gone back and beaten her to death. I couldn't risk that." Matt had berated himself for the same thing over and over again the last several months, but he knew why he didn't try harder to get her out.

Cheryl nodded, seeming to calm down. "Okay, I understand that. All things considered, I guess you did the right thing. But, that is only half of the reason I want to slap you right now. Really, what hell were you thinking getting involved with Emily again?"

"I don't know, I wasn't really thinking. I went over one night and we hit it off, and I remembered what it was like with her. So, I went over again, after I heard her mention Eddie was away, and it just happened."

"Just happened?" She demanded, hands on her hips.

"Yeah, I could see that she still cared about me, and I'm still as much in love with her now as I was five years ago. It didn't matter that she ran, it didn't matter that she was married, all that mattered is that I got to be with her again." He stood watching her, hoping she would understand.

"Matt, I love Emily like a sister, but this is the same woman who left you five years ago, the same women you moped over for the last four or five years. What I'm trying to say is, she broke your heart before, do you really think this is a good idea?" She didn't have to strain too hard to remember that when Emily left, Matt was in a bad way.

"I know that Cheryl, but I love her, past that I really have no control…I couldn't stop myself if I wanted to."

* * *

"So Emily, we have a bit of a problem here. You see, I want to believe you had no choice, but to kill your abusive husband," Perdue explained.

"That's what happened. What's the problem?" Emily rested her head in her hand, too exhausted to be patient any longer.

"See I have a hard time believing that now. Now, it looks a whole lot like you and your boyfriend plotted to kill your husband, figuring we wouldn't choose to prosecute a woman being abused."

"We didn't. I didn't want to kill Eddie, he may have been an asshole, but he gave me my girls, and they love him. I couldn't do that to them."

"See that I don't believe. I don't think your daughters love their father, they're both scared to death of him." From what he'd heard, those girls wanted nothing to do with their father.

"Only when he gets violent. When he acts like a father, he's wonderful with the girls, he just hasn't done that much lately." She shouldn't defend him she knew, but it was hard not to, he was still the father of her children.

"So, if you weren't planning n killing him, how were you and Matt planning to get you and the girls safely away from Eddie?" He regarded her skeptically.

"I got the paperwork to file a restraining order, I just haven't finished filling it out yet, and I spoke to a divorce attorney. And, I…I looked into a few shelters for abused women, to see if any had room for the girls and I. They're secret, we could hide until the divorce was finalized." She had really been ready to leave him, Eddie just couldn't be human long enough to give her the chance.

"Okay, where is this paperwork, what's the name of this attorney, and I want the names of the shelters you looked at."

"The paperwork is in my desk at work, the attorney is Jillian Danvers, her number is at 701-555-2736. And the shelters, I have to try and remember them a minute. Uh, Helping Hands was one, Second Chance…um, WAN, the Women's Abuse Network, I spoke with them, they place people at shelters, and the last one was the Anna Marquez House. Is that good enough for you?" He finished scribbling in his note pad, and looked up, nodding.

"Sit tight another minute." Perdue got up and walked out of the interrogation room, walking around to the other side of the glass where his partner, boss, and the DA were still gathered.

"So, what are we thinking?"

"Personally, I say we cut her loose regardless if she planned it or not. He still beat the shit out of her, he deserved what he got." The DA shrugged, and turned to the glass, watching the tired red-head on the other-side.

"Loo?" Hamilton felt the same as the DA and firmly believed that Matt hadn't had a hand in the planning.

"I agree. If she'd hadn't killed him, we'd probably have been scraping her body off the floor in a few months. Let her go, let them both go."

The two detectives nodded, secretly relieved. They'd seen the hospital reports, the deep purple bruises on her body, often over-lapping healing brown and yellow marks, the broken ribs she'd suffered twice, the concussion. That was from one of the few times Eddie ever aimed for her head; he always caused damage where people couldn't see it.

"Ms. Lehman, you are free to go. Have a good night." Perdue smiled, holding the interrogation room door open for her. Emily wearily walked through it, and ambled beside him back to the squad room, half asleep on her feet. And then, there was Matt. He sat by one of the desk, waiting anxiously with Cheryl.

He stood up when he saw her, and hurried over, meeting her halfway, engulfing her in his arms. Emily held to him tightly, burying her head in his shoulder, finally breaking down. Her body jolted with her sobs, and her tears began to dampen Matt's shirt. She had killed him, she had taken a life; he'd finally driven her to that last horrific resort. She'd killed the man who'd put her two precious little girls in her womb.

But, at the same time she was free. Free from fear, free from pain, free from the tyranny and oppression of a man who promised to love her. But, the questioned remained, where did she go from here?

* * *

_Two more chapters I think for this one. Thanks for reading and please review!  
_


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning Emily woke up after a difficult night's sleep, even with Matt spooning her, Eddie invaded her dreams. He flashed her that smug, evil grin of his, as if to say he wasn't dead, and then attacked her as he had much of their marriage. She woke up, sweating, her chest heaving, and tears coming before she could stop them, but Matt simply pulled her closer, rubbing her back. But, he wasn't in bed now.

Emily wandered out toward the living room, wearing only underwear and one of Matt's t-shirts. She looked around, until she heard noises coming from the kitchen, and followed them to find Matt making coffee. He turned when he saw her and smiled. These last years he'd missed her horribly, but seeing her standing there in his t-shirt, it was as if all that time hadn't really passed. Though it had, her two little girls were undeniable proof of that.

"Hey, good morning." He kissed her cheek, and hit the button to start the coffee brewing.

"Morning, what time is it?" She fidgeted almost nervously, not quite sure how to handle herself under their present circumstances.

"Not quite nine. Are you hungry, I have cereal, and I think some English muffins?"

"Cereal is fine. Golden Grahams?" She asked with a knowing grin. It was Matt's favorite cereal, and if there was nothing else in all his cabinets, fridge or freezer, he'd still have Golden Grahams and maybe milk.

"Of course." He shrugged in a self-deprecating fashion.

"So long as there's no mini marshmallows, I'll be very happy with anything."

He looked at her curiously. "You've issued an embargo on mini marshmallows? That seems a little harsh."

Her face broke into a tired smile. "Mini marshmallows, mini alphabet letters, mini waffles, mini cookies, and pink milk. Once you have kids, everything is cutesy, you don't get to buy normal food anymore."

Matt was silent for several moments watching her. "You feed them mini waffles? I've got to get me some of them."

"And mini pancakes," she promised him. Instead of replying, Matt took her face in his hands, and placed a delicate kiss to her lips, resting his forehead against hers.

"We need to talk," Emily brought them back to reality, pulling away.

"Yeah. You and the girls are welcome to stay here." Inside his head, Matt was begging her to stay.

"I appreciate that Matt, but I don't know if that would be good for the girls this soon. They love you, but they just lost their father, who yes was a huge prick, but still their father. Mommy being with another man so soon might confuse them, and they need time to adjust to Eddie not being around." God, she wanted to move in with him right then, but she had to think of the girls.

Matt tried not to appear hurt. "How long would that take? You're having my baby, Em."

"I'm not trying to shut you out Matt, I'm trying to be responsible here. Jumping from one relationship to the next is what got me into this mess."

"I know, I'm sorry. I just don't want to lose you again, and I want to be there for you, _and _the girls. And, our baby."

"I'm not going anywhere Matt. And, I'm not saying you can't see us, I want you to be around, I just need to get on my feet again. Just a few months, enough time to make sure the girls are okay, to know that I can still stand on my own…I'm going to look for a new house, I can't go back there, and I need to sell the old one. When is your lease up?"

"Just renewed it a month ago for another two years."

"Okay…I'm going to get a hotel room, and the girls and I will stay in there until we have a new home. We'll settle in, and take a few months to adjust to everything. By then I'll be showing, and we can explain it to the kids. Can you get out of your lease early?" She wanted him living with them by her third trimester, she'd be needing a lot of help.

"Of course…so you do want me living with you—in a few months?" Did he understand that right?

"Yes, definitely."

* * *

One Week Later

"So, where do we start?" Duff's head swiveled around the house, which he and Lia had arrived to help pack up, though his wife had been very quiet on the drive over. Their 18 month-old daughter Abby was at home playing with Emily's two girls, while Duff's mother watched all three.

"Um, Matt and Frank are taking apart some of the kids furniture, and Cheryl and I are packing up the kitchen." Emily welcomed them in her house, now released as a crime scene, and soon to become someone else's home.

"Okay, I'll leave you ladies to that, and go help the guys, or at least watch and laugh." He kissed Lia's forehead and hurried up the stairs.

"Lia? You okay?" Emily looked at her worriedly, the analyst looked unhappy and hadn't said a word.

"No. No, I'm not. I'm wondering why I didn't know my best friend was being smacked around by her husband. I'm wondering if I had known, I could have helped before it became what it did. I think about Eddie, and what he was doing to you, and Emily, I can't…I can't…" Lia's words dissolved into the lump in her throat and the tears swimming in her eyes. She angrily wiped them away.

"Damn it Emily, why didn't you tell me what was going on? I could have helped you!"

"I wasn't ready for help, Lia. Matt tried for months to get me to leave him, but I just…I just wasn't ready." Emily spoke very softly, mostly to her feet.

"Well fine, but you still should have told me! I could have at least been a shoulder to cry on, I mean, aren't we friends? All this time, I thought you were happy, and I was so happy for you, even if you weren't with Matt, and then I find out that Eddie was abusing you this whole time…" She let a few tears track down her cheeks, still unable to understand.

"Lia, you have been my closest friend for seven years, give or take, and whether you know it or not, you did help me get through this. Just hearing your voice on the other end of the phone line helped me pick myself up some nights. I was just ashamed. Highly trained, brazen FBI crisis negotiator can't even protect herself from her husband, can't negotiate the crisis in her own living room. I just didn't want anyone to know."

"Emily, it's not your fault-" Emily put her hand up to stop her.

"I know, but when it's happening to you, it's pretty hard to convince yourself of that." Talking to her shoes again, Emily felt Lia's arms go around her, and reciprocated, holding her best friend tightly.

"I do have something else I'd like to tell you though," Emily pulled back, grinning excitedly.

"You and Matt are back together?" Lia offered a guess.

"Yes, but that isn't it. I'm pregnant, ten weeks." Lia's mouth opened, it was clear Emily was very happy about her new baby, so she closed it quickly.

"Did Eddie know?"

"Yeah, I told him that night. He thought it was his."

"Wait, Eddie wasn't the one that got you pregnant?" Now Lia was thoroughly confused. She hadn't gotten much of the story that night, or the next day, not realizing there was so much more to it.

"No, the baby is Matt's." Emily rubbed a hand over her still flat tummy fondly.

"Really, you and Matt…while you were still with Eddie?" Lia was blinking her eyes, trying to process the mass of information she just received.

"Yeah, and Lia, it was wonderful, even better than I remembered it." Emily's eyes were twinkling, and Lia flashed her an amused smile.

"Damn good for you."

* * *

**Three Months Later**

"Mommy, can we have desert now?" Bridget asked, holding up her cleaned dinner plate.

"First, Matt and I would like to talk to you, then we'll all have some desert, okay?" She took the plates from the table and began to load the dishwasher. They'd been living in their new home for three months, and it was perfect.

It wasn't huge, but plenty big enough to give the girls room to grow. Four bedrooms, three small ones and a master bedroom, two full bathroom's upstairs, and a half bath downstairs. There as a nice sized kitchen, with room to walk around, and all the time and energy saving appliances they'd come to rely on. A living room, small office, and a den with a fireplace finished off the downstairs. Mostly hardwood floors, but very comfortable, and decorated by three of the sharpest women in the Bureau, and three of the most compliant grunts they could find, also three of the most talented men in the Bureau. The girls were sharing a room now, but their was room to give them their own when they got older.

"Juice!" Marie called desperately from her seat.

"How do we ask for something, Marie?" Emily asked her, patiently.

"Peez!" She held out her sippy cup to them, wiggling it in the air.

"Okay sweetie, I'll get it for you," Matt smiled and grabbed the cup, refilling it with cranberry juice and handing it back to the eager toddler.

"So, Bridge, I know you noticed Mommy's belly getting bigger, and I told you I tell you about it soon, right?" Emily sat down again, and regarded her girls.

Bridget nodded, now looking worried.

"Well, there's a baby growing inside me." She smiled at them, trying to show that it was a good thing.

Bridget looked confused. "Like with Marie?"

"Yeah, both you and Marie grew in my belly, and now your little brother or sister is." Emily had chosen with her girls to be surprised by their sex when the came out, and was choosing the same with this baby.

Marie squealed. "Ba-be…ba-be," she sang happily, not quite sure what was going on, but happy about whatever it was.

Bridget turned to Marie, and then back to her mother. "Can it be a brother? I already have a sister." Matt and Emily barely stifled their laughter.

"Well, sweetie, we won't know if it's a boy or girl until it's born."

"When's that gonna be?" Bridget asked impatiently.

"Well, not for another four and a half months." Emily rubbed her belly, smiling.

"Okay, I'll wait." As if she had the choice.

"Good, now that we got that straightened out, I've got so more good news. You know how daddy gave me you and Marie?" Emily had given up addressing both girls, Marie wouldn't understand anyway.

"Yeah, Mommies and Daddies make babies together," Bridget explained proudly. That had not been a pleasant conversation for Emily.

"Yes, that's right. Well, Matt gave Mommy this baby, and he's going to live with us now, so he can be a Daddy to the baby." Emily knew her daughter was smart, but wasn't sure she would grasp that concept.

Bridget sat quietly before nodding, a sad look on her face, and her fingers her new focus.

"Bridge, I thought you liked Matt?" Emily was getting worried now. It was so easy when she thought the girls liked him, but what if they didn't anymore?

"No! No I do, Mommy! Lots!" She shrieked, looking even more upset.

"Then why are you pouting?"

"Well, cause…the baby is lucky!" Her sudden declaration startled both adults.

"Oh?" Emily didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah! The baby has a daddy, but our daddy is gone!" The longer the conversation went on, the more upset Bridget became, and Emily was at a complete loss.

"Come here," Emily motioned her oldest child into her arms, and rocked Bridget as the little girl began to cry. She hadn't cried at Eddie's funeral. She'd cried the night he died, and for a few several nights after that.

Matt laid a hand on Emily's back, maybe it was still too early for the girls, maybe they should wait longer before he moved in. The thought killed him though. He wanted to wrap his arms around Emily's growing belly at night, he wanted to hold her in his arms as they slept. He wanted to wake up with her, even if she ran to the bathroom to vomit as soon as her eyes opened. He wanted to massage her back, rub her feet, and rush around desperately looking for whatever weird cravings she had to satisfy. He wanted to shush her, when one of the girls woke up from a nightmare, and take care of her himself, so Emily could sleep. He wanted to help the girls get ready in the mornings, and read them stories before they went to sleep.

"Mommy?" Bridget picked her head up, and looked up at her mother.

"Yeah, sweetie?" Emily stroked her little girl's hair, brushing a few pieces out of her eyes.

"Our daddy's gone…so can Matt be our daddy too?" She asked it so innocently, not realizing what that meant to the two adults with her.

Emily's eyes flew to Matt, who actually had tears glazing over his eyes. She turned back to Bridget, who stared up at her waiting for an answer. "Sure baby, I think he'd like that."

Bridget turned to Matt quickly. "Would you Matt?! Would you be my daddy?!"

"Yeah Bridge, I'd love to be your daddy." He caught the little girl as she jumped into his arms, and wrapped her skinny little arms around his neck. He held her tightly, his eyes meeting Emily, both unsuccessful in holding back their tears.

* * *

_Sorry, I'm back and work, and busy again, but I promise the last chapter will be up this week! Thanks for reading and reviewing!_


	6. Chapter 6

"So let's see this little rugrat," Frank demanded jovially, leading the group of four friends into a private room in the maternity wing of Oceanview Hospital. Emily smiled up at her friends, a newborn baby with a head full of dark hair resting in her arms.

"Hi," she greeted.

"Where's the proud papa? I figured he'd be like Duff, and refuse to leave your side until the hospital discharged you," Frank teased, recalling his young friend after Lia had, had their daughter, still nervous as a squirrel, even after the baby came out.

"He's getting the girls from his father's, he's been watching them since I went into labor. They should all be here soon." She stoked the baby's down soft hair lovingly, beaming smile permanently etched on her face.

"So this is little Joseph? He already looks like his daddy," Cheryl smiled, and gently took the baby boy into her arms, smiling down at him.

"How are you feeling?" Frank looked at her seriously.

"Deliriously happy." And she looked it too.

"Exactly what you should be," Lia rubbed her friend's arm affectionately, and then prepared to take her turn holding the baby.

"So, are you two planning anymore, or are you set with three?" Duff asked, watching Lia play with the baby, knowing they certainly weren't done.

"Don't really know, I could be very happy with just the three, but if Matt wants another…well, I wouldn't shoot down the idea immediately."

"So, we've got to know, Emily…" Frank started, conspiratory smile on his face, as he took the infant boy up into his arms.

"Have to know what?" She asked him skeptically.

"Are we going to hear wedding bells in the near future?" His eyes flicked up to her, from the baby, who'd grabbed one of his fingers, and was staring at the HRT commander wide-eyed.

"I like that idea," Matt announced, catching the tail end of the conversation. He swept over to the bed, and placed a chasted kissed upon his girlfriend's lips.

"Hey, I think we need to talk about that—later." Emily smiled, that was a conversation for just the two of them. "Where are the girls, and your father?"

"In the cafeteria. As it turns out, they are too young to be in the maternity wing, something about young children spreading germs." Emily looked disappointed.

"So they can't meet Joe until we bring him home?"

"No, I know, I wanted them to see him too." He took her hand and brought it to his lips.

"How about we go relieve your father of babysitting duty, so he can come up here and see the baby?" Cheryl suggested, taking charge, ever the leader.

"We'd appreciate that, thank you." Emily told her gratefully. The four friends took turns kissing Emily, and Matt, or in the guys case, very manly hugs. Duff gently eased Joe into Matt's arms, and he perched on the bed next to Emily.

* * *

"Aunt Cheryl!" Bridget shrieked, seeing her idol come in the cafeteria door, launching herself at her. Bridget had taken very quickly to Cheryl, deciding she wanted to work for the FBI when she grew up, like her mommy and daddy, but be in charge of everything, like her Aunt Cheryl. 

"Hello peanut, we just saw your mommy, and baby brother, he's adorable!" Cheryl told her in an exaggerated fashion, picking the little girl up.

"Duff!" Marie giggled, having taken surprisingly, to her uncle, whose antics she found endlessly entertaining. He made a face at her, causing her to giggle harder, and then scooped her up.

"Matt and Emily are waiting for you, Mr. Flannery," Lia politely told the older man with Matt's eyes and smile, paying him the respect his age required.

"Thank you, I'm very excited to see my grandson." He certainly seemed so, his eyes lit up, and hands that couldn't seem to hang still. He headed out of the cafeteria.

"So, Bridge. You like living with Matt?" The girls hadn't had him as their father long, and they all wanted to be sure they were adjusting well.

"Yeah, I love Matt. He's the dragon." Her face was so serious when she said it, the group wasn't quite sure what to think. Frank opened his mouth first.

"What do you mean, sweetie?"

"I wished on lots of stars for a dragon to save Mommy. Then Matt came, he made me a dragon from playdough. He _is_ the dragon," she insisted. "He saved Mommy."

Not one of the adults in front of her would deny the child actually believed what she was saying, and in some ways, they thought she was right. Being with Matt again, Emily was reminded of what love really was, and he put Joe in her womb, her reason for finally saying enough was enough.

* * *

"Now, where's my adorable new grandson at?" Gregory Flannery asked, excitedly entering the room where his son sat with the woman who gave him a baby boy. 

"Hey Dad, this irresistible little guy is Joseph…come on Joe, we've got to juggle you once more, so your grandpa can hold you." Matt eased the baby into his father's eager arms. Joe was Greg's first grandchild; the younger Flannery had been married a while, but they were both busy detectives with no real interest in children.

"Hey there Joe, I heard you tired out your mama pretty good last night." He cooed at the baby, before turning his attention to Emily. "You're glowing Emily, absolutely beautiful."

"Thank you," she said so softly, he almost didn't hear it. Matt squeezed her hand and pressed his lips to her forehead.

"He's perfect, looks just like Matty did when he was born, especially that hair. When my boy came out, that poor doctor had a shock, said he never saw a baby with so much hair, sent his mother into a fit of giggles. After ten hours of labor, she still had the energy to giggle, amazing woman." He spoke more to the baby than his parents, and almost missed the tears forming in his son's eyes.

Matt kissed Emily's hand, and then excused himself to get her some water, but really just needed a minute to collect himself. Thinking of his mother then was hard, he wanted so badly for her to see his family: Emily, the girls (the paperwork for the adoption was being put through), and their beautiful new baby. He sat for several minutes in the visitor's room at the end of the hall, gathering himself back.

Greg took that time to have a private moment with the mother of his grandson. He perched on the edge of the bed facing her, Joe still laying contentedly in his arms.

"Emily, I want to tell you some things, I need to tell you some things." He paused, constructing his words in his head.

Emily nodded, and swallowed nervously, wondering what he was going to say.

"After Matt lost his mom, he wasn't the same…I think his heart was a little broken. I've worried about him through the years, worried that he'd never let a woman in long enough to fall in love with her. But, he fell in love with you, I could tell that the first time he mentioned you. There was something in his eyes, this kind of light that went out when his mom left us. I want to thank you for bringing that back." He paused, and gave Emily a minute to wipe the tears from her eyes before they had a chance to fall.

"That goes both ways. I love him so much, I want to be with him forever." He smiled at her.

"I could see that too. There's something else. Matt loves those girls too, like they're his own, and I have to tell you, I love them like their blood too. As far as I'm concerned little Joe here isn't my first grandbaby, Bridget and Marie are my first grandbabies." Emily's eyes were filled with tears again, as he leaned in, and pulled her into a hug, still carefully cuddling the baby in one arm.

"That…that means a lot." Emily struggled to take in a deep breath to choke back her tears. They were a family. Her girls finally had a father that loved them, and didn't scare them, and a grandfather to spoil them rotten. Like her own parents, Eddie's had never met the girls, and probably never would.

"Hey," Matt greeted making it back to the room. "A nurse just accosted me, visiting hours are over in thirty minutes."

"I suppose I better give this back to you soon then," Greg teased, stroking the baby's head.

"Yeah…you've got the girls again tonight?"

"Absolutely, I figure a few nurses won't scare my son into leaving your room." Greg shot Matt an amused look, who looked mildly embarrassed for a moment.

"I could take them," Matt joked, suddenly growing quiet. "…you still want the girls to see the baby?" He'd been formulating an idea in his head, so the girls could see their baby brother.

"Yeah…I know that look, what are you thinking?"

"All we need is a wheel chair, hang on."

Ten minutes later Matt pushed Emily in a wheel chair, through the cafeteria doors, with Joe snuggly in her arms. Greg walked proudly behind them.

"Daddy!" Marie squealed, wiggling loose from Lia's lap, and bounding over to Matt. She wrapped her little arms around his legs, as Bridget ran up to her mother, staring wide-eyed at the baby. Matt lifted Marie into his arms, and let his father wheel Emily the rest of the way to the table their friends inhabited.

"Mommy?" Bridget's small voice asked, sounding frightened.

"What's wrong sweetie?" Emily's mom radar went off at her daughter's tone.

"Why are you in that thing?" She pointed to the wheelchair, clearly disturbed by it.

"Ohh… Well sweetie, making a baby is hard work, and Mommy's tired." Of course, the adults couldn't help but snicker and exchange looks at that, knowing the couple enjoyed every minute of actually making that baby.

"But, are you okay?"

"Yes baby, I'm fine." Bridget's tense expression immediately eased, and she then focused on the baby, who Marie was already playing with.

"Baby," she announced, petting his arm.

"Good girl Marie, you're doing really well being gentle with baby Joe," Matt commended her.

She didn't stay interested too long, since he wasn't doing anything, and soon went over to her grandpa, and yanked on his pant legs, raising her arms to announce her desire to be held. He, of course, complied.

Bridget continued to stare entranced at the baby, and kept looking from her parents to the baby, not quite sure what to do.

"Hey Bridge, you want to hold him?" Matt knelt down to her, and asked almost in a whisper. She nodded quickly.

Matt sat on a bench by Emily, and lifted Bridget into his lap. Lia came around, and lifted Joe into their waiting arms. Joe laid in Bridget's arms, and Matt's strong arms encircled them both, and the little girl continued to watch the baby boy, completely mesmerized.

Emily watched them, seemingly as mesmerized as her daughter was. She bit her lip, and swallowed down tears. The man she never stopped loving was holding her little girl tenderly, as if she was really his. And, her little girl was cuddling her newborn baby brother in the arms of a man she'd come to call Daddy. This was how it should have been. She almost lost her chance at having this moment, but here it was in front of her, and she was having trouble keeping hold of her emotions.

* * *

"Okay, come on baby Joe, you have to go back to the nursery," a pretty young nurse cooed at the baby, after taking him from Emily. They were back in her room, Emily in her bed, Matt perched beside her. After hugs and kisses, their friends had left to go back home, promising to visit again once Emily and the baby were settled in at home. Matt's father took the girls back to his home for another night of being spoiled by grandpa. 

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Matt asked, taking up her hand, and once again perched on the edge of the bed.

"Really, really happy," she told him, the tears in her eyes making her voice thick.

"Then why the tears?" He cocked his head to the side.

"Because, I almost lost us the chance at being here. I'm sorry I got scared, I'm sorry I ran."

"How many times are you going to apologize for that?" He asked her, stroking the hair by her forehead.

"Until I stop feeling guilty." Since she'd come back, she'd been beating herself up about running, no matter how many times he told her it didn't matter anymore.

"You know it takes two to wreck a relationship, I hold some of that blame too."

"Maybe…I just don't want this to end again." She picked up his hand, kissed it, holding it to her chest.

"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that," he smiled, taking back his hand, and turning from her for a moment, but facing her again, diamond ring in his fingers.

"Oh my god," Emily breathed. When she said they'd talk about it later, she hadn't imagined this.

"I bought this ring almost six years ago, because I knew I wanted to marry you then. I still want to spend the rest of my life with you, and the girls and Joe. We didn't have the easiest ride getting here Em, but I want this forever…I want you forever." Matt swallowed and waited silently for her to respond, sure in his mind she'd says yes, but nervous nonetheless.

"Almost six years ago, I wanted that too, but I was just too damn scared. But, I can tell you yes now. I want to marry you, Matt." She allowed him to take her hand, and place the ring on her finger. She'd long since removed her engagement and wedding rings from Eddie, and sold them to a pawn shop. She didn't want the memories. Eddie gave her, her daughters, and that's the only memory she wanted to keep of their life together.

Matt brought his body close to hers, holding her securely in his arms, feeling her heart beating against his.

"I love you," she whispered to him, before yawning and reminding them of the hour. It was late, and they'd brought a baby into the world together only last night, sleep was necessary, and very soon.

"I love you too." He kissed her, and leaned his head against hers. "How about we get some sleep.

She nodded, and scootched over, making room for him. Matt kicked off his shoes, and climbed in with her, laying on his side, as Emily scootched back toward him. She wrapped an arm around his waist, and leaned her head, just below his collar bone. He yanked the covers up over them, and then put his arm around her.

Emily had confessed after a month sleeping together, that she wasn't comfortable spooning anymore. It was something Eddie had done, particularly after he'd beaten her or forced he into rough sex. Afterward he'd enjoy the mental torture of pulling her tight against him, and holding her there through the night. She'd be still trembling, and often still crying, and her body would remain tense against his, sleep escaping her. Even in Matt's loving arms, she still felt confined and frightened, still trembled. She preferred to be facing him, seeing, knowing it was Matt, who would never hurt her.

Maybe one day, she would be comfortable spooning again, but for now, her memories of living with Eddie were too raw to try. She still had nightmares where she woke up, terrified that her life with Matt was just a dream, and the figure beside her was actually Eddie. Matt simply held her until her heart slowed, whispering over and over again that she was safe, that he couldn't hurt her anymore.

Bridget had nightmares that Eddie was back too, watched him hit Emily in her dreams, heard him yell, and woke up crying for both Emily and Matt. She needed to see that Emily was alright, and that Matt, her magical dragon, was still there protecting them. They rocked and hushed her back to sleep together, while Marie slept oblivious, only a few feet away in her toddler bed.

Some day in the future, Eddie's specter would leave them in peace. His memory would gradually fade over time, they wouldn't be able to remember his face clearly, and then his voice would lose its distinctiveness. Finally, the pain and fear he brought them would lose its clarity in their memories, and he would be behind them. With a little luck, Marie wouldn't even remember him, and Bridget would build an arsenal of new, happy memories to turn to when she did think of him. And baby Joe would never have to know what it was like, he'd never watch his mother being beaten, never hide and cower from the yelling.

Emily would always remember, she would never be able to completely forget what it felt like to live like that. She'd never fully be able to block the memories of having her arm twisted behind her back, of being dragged around the house by her hair, of begging him to stop during sex, because he was hurting her…and being ignored. And, she would always hate herself for letting it continue, for how many times she sent the girls running up to hide in their bedroom, so they didn't have to see it. But Emily too would build an arsenal of memories to build a wall against the bad ones. And, had a pair of loving arms to encircle her when she just couldn't seem to forget.

Knowing all this, Emily closed her eyes and snuggled closer to Matt. It was time to relax, it was time to let it all go. She slept easily with images of her new baby, her new family, her new life, dancing through her head.

* * *

_There you go, very, very happy ending to a not so happy story. Thanks for reading and reviewing!_


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